Back to Basics, no more “Stop and Gawk”

Wow.. can you believe it’s September already? I am a little bummed that summer is over and soon the leaves will be falling and snow is right around the corner. It has been a good summer for me.. I have been slowly increasing my distance, and working on my form and pace. But between dealing with my daughter’s illness and my father passing away in June, my stress level had definitely been up. My running has been my ticket to sanity this summer for sure.

I have mentioned before in previous posts how I tend to get distracted easily when I run. (I now call this “Stop and Gawk”!) I started thinking that maybe I just couldn’t run a whole 5K without stopping and that I was just using the distractions as an excuse. But once I got on a treadmill and went 6 miles without stopping, and then run 2 miles at the gym on the track without stopping, I realized that I am stronger than I was giving myself credit for.

So… tonite I was looking forward to getting out my trail bike and going for a ride. Last saturday I did a 12 mile walk, and ended up with a huge blister on each heel. I didn’t want to lance them because of the chance of infection, so I just made a few mini pinholes and got the fluid out that way. I was hoping that riding bike tonite would give them another day to heal. But… my tires are too old, and wont keep the air, so I will have to get new ones. That didn’t give me any choice but to run. (I absolutely go nuts if I have to miss a run!) I lubed up the blisters with BodyGlide and off I went. I decided to do something different though.. I thought I would go back to basics.

Back to basics means, starting the Couch to 5K program over again and fully running it this time. Last time when I started it, I couldn’t keep up with the running parts at all. Of course I was 260lbs at the time, and now I’m a sexy 214. I thought to myself that if I did the run/walk thing it might be better for my feet too.

I turned on C25K and I skipped day 1, and went directly to day 2. What I decided to do was when it was “run time” I would increase my usual cadence and bump it up a notch, so that I was running 10min/mi sections instead of my usual 12min/mi. The walk sections allowed me to rest my legs a bit, and plus it varied the terrain for me. What that means is, normally I might walk a section of a hill almost always. Today it didn’t matter, as I had to do what the British lady told me to do! hahaha…

I did days 2 and 3 and finished up with a 5 minute walk to my house. ( This ended up being a 4.75 mile workout.) I feel soooo good about that workout, in that I was finally able to go back to the beginning and do it right! I will skip tomorrow and on Weds, I will do day 4. If I find it’s a little harder to stay on track, I will just repeat day 4 until I am ready to move up. I am so determined that I am going to run a 5K outside without the usual “Stop and Gawk” 🙂

I am going to work on the machines at the gym this winter to increase my core strength and overall fitness. I hope to do a full half marathon race next summer. Right now I would love to say that I am working towards a full Marathon, but I actually think I might set a goal to get to the “Rock and Roll” Half Marathon that takes place on the Vegas Strip every year at night!!. Some proceeds from this race go to Crohn’s research, a cause that is dear to my heart now that my daughter has been diagnosed. It would be a blast to go to Vegas for the first time and do a race with thousands of people that have Crohn’s or have loved ones with the disease. (Plus it would be a great get-a-way for hubby and me. We don’t gamble on the slots or anything, but to just go see the city would be amazing.)

Runners, what do you think about how I am approaching this? Am I putting myself back in my training or is this a good idea to re-group and carry on? Looking for comments on this one please!

4 responses to “Back to Basics, no more “Stop and Gawk””

I think you definitely have the right idea! Work the 5k program and see how you feel after it. If you need more of a challenge or more of a break, make some tweaks to the program.

Great goal! I ran Vegas last year and it was my very first half. It was a bit of a mess but I still had a blast. I think that they are working to make changes to the event due to the massive amount of complaints they received last year. I would read some reviews after this year and see if they made the changes they promised. No matter what the half, with the way you have worked, you will get there!

I think it’s a great idea because you are working on pushing yourself a little harder. It’s never a bad idea to try new things. If it doesn’t work for you then try something different. Sounds like it is working well for you. Just make sure to give yourself some rest days of just walking or biking.